Author Topic: 52 Games Challenge 2019  (Read 52605 times)

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #60 on: February 11, 2019, 03:24:46 pm »
Finished up New Super Mario Bros U. Deluxe. I played it originally on the wii u but kinda forgot it. It was an enjoyable play through. not sure if its worth full price to people who have it on Wii U, but if you never got a chance to play it I'd say pick it up for the switch.

Yeah, I thought I had played this one, but I was watching a playthrough and couldn't remember a single level I was watching be played.  So either I beat it or it's super forgettable.

Its a good game while you are playing it, but theres nothing that sets it aside from any of the other New Super mario bros games. I did enjoy it, but I'm sure I wont remember anything about it in a few months.

wolfen

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #61 on: February 14, 2019, 11:30:31 pm »
2. Kirby's Adventure(NES-Nintendo Switch Online)

It's Kirby, not much to it, just good simple fun. Although Nightmare is such a slog to beat, not necessarily hard but, very slow going.

Time: 5 hours
« Last Edit: February 23, 2019, 09:28:45 pm by wolfen »



Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #62 on: February 20, 2019, 10:06:12 am »
Main List

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Quote from: Legend
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.

42. Cosmic Star Heroine (NS)
I finally gave up on Flinthook.  Haven't decided if I'll sell my Switch copy, but the game is frustrating.  I really hate rogue games.  This game is pretty good so far.  I can already tell this game is going to have that trope where the organization that the protag works for is the real evil.  Game is really good, combat is interesting and fairly unique, no random battles, optional side quests, and not so long that you feel like it's a slog to finish.  Overall, I really enjoyed the game and almost don't regret double dipping.  I even reassessed my list for the year and decided that in retrospect I don't like Moonlighter that much and replaced it with this on my list.
Rating: Recommended.

43. Kamiko (NS)
After finishing CSH, I decided to jump into this because I won it in a Discord giveaway.  Game reminds me a TON of Fairune, like graphically and tons of the characters look straight ripped out of it... and having just googled it, the game was either made by the same people or at least published by the same people.  I think this game would've been a great addition to the Fairune Collection as opposed to Fairune Blast... but oh well.  Game is about an hour long and has 3 stages I believe, maybe 4 or 5, I don't really remember.  Combat is full hack and slash as opposed to Fairune's sort of non-combat combat.
Rating: Soft Pass.  It's not bad, but I won't call it memorable.

44. Burnout Paradise (360)
I've been in the mood for mindless games and for me it doesn't get much more mindless than racing or shooting games.  I waffled between playing CoD/Battlefield and some random racing game and I wound up installing a bunch of racing games.  This one installed first I think, so I went with it.  Game feels pretty dated in many aspects, but it's entirely playable and super enjoyable.  Not a big fan of having to drive all the way back to a junkyard to switch cars and no form of fast travel makes it sort of a slog.  Game is enjoyable as most Burnout games are.
Rating: Soft Pass, maybe go for the Remastered edition.

45. My Girlfriend is a Mermaid (NS)
Decided to jump into this game because I didn't know what else to play.  I've never really played a VN before, I've played a little bit of Clannad and a little bit of 428, but not very much of either.  I'm not really feeling this game, I don't really relate to being attracted to mermaids, and the writing in this game feels like the type of cringe/edge bullshit you'll read on 4chan.  I swear it's just button clicks until I get a fucking "M'lady" out of the main character or he decides to put on a fedora.  "I'm glad I do after school clubs otherwise I wouldn't have the power to carry this girl".  Yikes.  Honestly... I think my review here is going to be me straight ripping on this game until I finish it or give up.  I'm still playing this because I'm trying to figure out how to get a not terrible ending.  Might have to do some googling.
Rating: Hard Pass

46. Final Fantasy IX (PS4)
I actually started playing this game with my wife watching about 2 years ago shortly after it came out on PS4, but I wound up abandoning it pretty quickly.  Might've been boredom, might've been my wife deciding not to watch anymore.  Anyway, we hopped back into this and now I'm early on in Disc 2.  I'm using a lot of the game boosts, I think, the ones that don't disable achievements.  I'm basically skipping over battles because I just can't stand random battles on console games.  My wife says I'm cheating and missing out on a good portion of the game, but I kind of don't care and just don't want to spend 40 hours on a game when I can spend like 10 and not wind up burning out fast on it.  I'm more or less in this game strictly for the story.  Finally finished the game.  Not terrible, but probably mostly because I relied on the games built in boosts.  My wife wants me to play FFX next... maybe I'll do that, but the boosts are probably the only reason that this wasn't terrible.
Rating: Soft Recommendation.

47. Minefield (PS4)
Minesweeper game that I bought a long time ago.  Got 100% of the trophies in about an hour.  Not even a very good minesweeper game.  Doesn't have the ability to manually trigger an auto fill if you know there are no bombs not flagged directly surrounding a selected block.  A huge time saver in minesweeper.
Rating: Hard pass.

48. Last Day of June (PS4)
Pretty good game, a little slow at parts with the repetition, but overall a pretty good game.  Puzzles aren't so hard that it's frustrating, but hard enough that it gives you a sense of accomplishment.  Story is pretty good, even with no dialogue.  Characters convey dialogue and emotion through Sim-esque noises and gestures.  Minus points for creepy no eye having faces.  Overall agreement that the game should be patched to add in googly eyes.
Rating: Recommended.

49. Slime-san (NS)
Current Progress: DLC
Decided to start up this game after I sort of abandoned Mermaid Girlfriend.  Played through a couple of levels and started to feel like I was going to abandon the game like most platformers for me.  I have a tough time finishing plain old platformers.  Game is essentially Super Meat Boy and while I enjoyed what a played of it, I abandoned it pretty quickly back in the day.  I get bored too quickly with the repetition.  But something happened and I managed to get through the majority of the game.  I think Switch makes it easier for me to deal with stuff like this because I can just play 5-15 minutes at a time and not feel like I have to keep playing.  Doing the Add-on content right now.  Haven't started it yet, might wind up only playing a little if it's too difficult.
Rating: Soft recommendation.  Gameplay is good, everything else is sorta meh.

50. Rage 2 (X1)
It took me a bit to get into the game as I was adjusting to the weird controls (Stick sensitivity I think, had to do adjusting) and then I was only playing for like 10-15 minutes a day, so I wasn't really getting much into the game before quitting for the day.  Now that I've gotten to put time into the game, I'm really enjoying it.  Minor complaints are the relative lack of fast travel and the giant holes in the world that prevent cutting across the map.  Did more adjusting, I think it was more my controller than anything else since I have the elite controller, I was using a poor setup for FPS games.  It sort of plays like an amalgamation of Mad Max, Far Cry, Bioshock, and Doom.  Decent vehicular combat, open world exploration with outpost based side events, collectible equipment/resources and magic skills, and fast paced sort of twitchy combat.
Rating: Highly recommended.

51. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X1)
I popped in Forza Horizon 4 after finishing up Rage 2 and decided that I wanted to play Skyrim for some reason instead... so I did.  I've beaten this game before so I'm starting it off saying I've beaten it because I have.  I decided that I wanted to go against my normal play style of a rogue build and go all in on a mage build.  I've been enjoying it so far, and it's a different enough experience for me, but I'm noticing a lot of things that make this game difficult to essentially role play.  Early on, I had 1 or 2 fights that were just impossible to do as a mage because the enemy was resistant to all magic attacks and I had no followers available.  And then the game makes it super easy to essentially be great at everything, which I don't want, and then to get all of the achievements you either have to play 20 times or make your character all styles.  I hit the point in the main path where they essentially force you to become a rogue character, which is explicitly what I didn't want to do... so I've stopped playing.
Rating: Recommended, but as a role playing game, it doesn't really let you play your own role.

52. Aeero (PS4)
Decided to play this to distract my kid because he loves music.  Didn't really distract him very much, but I enjoyed my time with the game that I wound up playing even when he was napping.  Beat it pretty quick.  LRG release doesn't include DLC.  Game doesn't really deserve to have a physical release as it really isn't that noteworthy of a game.  I'd rather see Amplitude get a physical release.
Rating: Soft pass.

53. A Normal Lost Phone (NS)
Nintendo was having a sale on the Lost Phone Stories collection, Transcripted is free if you own any one of many games that included this, and I have gold coins that are expiring soon... so I bought this.  Game is relatively short at about an hour or so.  Story is a little preachy towards its story, which doesn't offend me, but I can see how folks would play this and look at it as pretentious hipster garbage because of the story.  Gameplay wise, I enjoy being a filthy snoop so it appeals to me.
Rating: Honestly, price for value, I'd say Hard Pass, but on sale for cheap enough, I'd recommend this game as it's enjoyable and doesn't overstay its welcome.

54. Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (X1)
I tried to play this game years ago, I think on PS4, but I couldn't get into it and abandoned it pretty quickly.  I'm kind of out to find an RPG game that lets you play a role, and it seems that Witcher isn't that game either.  You play the role they chose for you with minor variations.  I'm gonna try and stick with it since it is widely considered a great game.  I think I've made it a little further than I did last time I played, I think I didn't even make it to that first tavern the first time I played.  I am going to track this game by my current level, because nothing else makes sense to track.  I still don't quite understand the combat in this game.  Blocking leads to me being staggered and stunned, parrying works fantastically when I do it.  Blocking makes no sense in this game when every hit makes you stagger.  Maybe every enemy does block breaking attacks, but I don't know how to do block breaking attacks, my strong attacks don't break enemy blocks.  Fundamentally there is something I'm not understanding.  I lowered the difficulty because I just don't get the combat.  The game is much more enjoyable now.  There is so much about this game that I just don't understand, but I am continuing to play the game, so that's something.  It's good enough so far that I'd say it's a top 5 game, I just don't know where it ranks.  Though it probably ranks around the same as FFXV for me.  We'll see.  My opinion stays the same, it's just above FFXV though.  I did manage to put over 100 hours into it, so that's a good sign.
Rating: Recommended

55. Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story (NS)
Part 2 of the collection that is Lost Phone Stories.  Story in this one is much better, and gameplay is more refined overall.  Just a better experience overall in this one.  Gameplay time is about the same as the first, so in totality I'd say this collection is between 2-3 hours of content with no replayability, but it's short enough that you could reasonably hand your Switch over to a friend and have them beat it in a single sitting.  There is something to gain from that in terms of value.
Rating: See #53 A Normal Lost Phone.

56. The Grand Tour Game (X1)
I finished Season 3 of Grand Tour and started watching it over again from Season 1.  Decided I finally wanted to play the game.  Went and bought it on Amazon.  Game consists of chunks of the show's content (not all of it mind you) spliced with short little races/mini games.  If they managed to do all 3 seasons rather than 1 episode for S1 and 2 and then every episode of S3 PLUS made the entire episodes available within the game, I'd argue that even if it's a shitty game, it's definitely worth the money... but it's not the case.  You get episode 1 of Season 1 and 2 plus all 13 episodes of Season 3 as playable episodes, it's not 15 chapters/episodes though as some episodes are combined into one like their actual survival touring episodes.  Also, each episode gives you a button to watch the full episode, but what the game does is launch the Amazon Video app, where I presume if you don't have Prime, you are unable to watch the episode... so it's a garbage gimmick feature that just straight up shouldn't exist.  The game has nearly 200 achievements with them being worth on average 5-10 points per achievement.  Gameplay is very arcade, reminiscent of the old Cruisin games, which is kinda cool.  I've heard complaints that folks expected a realistic driving game by professional car journalists... and I'm just like lul what?  I already know my rating, but I'll wait until I'm done.
Rating: Soft Pass.  It's actually a really decent arcade racer akin to Cruisin, it's very enjoyable, both in single player and multiplayer, but not much in the way of substance.

57. Octopath Traveler (NS)
Current Progress: Therion Chapter 4
Decided I was done with Slime-san after completing the main game and majority of the Krakken section.  Did my usual ask my wife for a pick between a slew of games and as usual she was useless.  She decided Octopath because it was the one game I had picked that I hadn't actually handed her the case to.  I didn't hand the case because it was still in the Wayfarer box.  I'm being a pill and playing the game in OCTOPATH order, so I started with Olberic.  I always have 2 problems with RPGs in general.  The huge amount of dialogue and the music.  I'm not one for filler, so long winded dialogue with otherwise useless information bores the hell out of me.  Music and sound in RPGs are a huge thing, but I prefer RPGs on handheld where I can't really have sound, so I either miss out on sound or I need earbuds.  I didn't keep updated on this game, but I've been playing it for nearly 3 months (along with Witcher 3 for most of it), I'm sitting at 81 hours and finishing up the final chapter of the final character for me, so I might finish today.
Rating: Recommended.

58. God of War (PS3)
I don't even know why I decided to finally start playing these games, but I'm gonna get through them this year, probably this month as they are all relatively short games.  Played this one on normal difficulty and by the end of the game I was pretty drained and frustrated especially with the final fights being so radically different than the rest of the game.  I never got offered easy mode though, don't know how many times you need to die to get that, but I recall being pretty frustrated with how things were progressing on normal.  I decided to do easy on GoW2 to see how I'm feeling after that, so more on that in the GoW2 section.  Story is fairly good, I feel like this game would've been great for me in my youth as I was so angry and probably would've related with Kratos on a spiritual level, but now I feel like I'll probably relate with the 2018 Kratos, so I'm looking forward to that.  I still hate the instant death mechanics of the Gorgons.  Fixed camera is such a lazy shitty feature that causes so many issues with platforming.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

59. God of War II (PS3)
Started this one on easy, and by the end I wasn't so frustrated, so I'll probably continue on easy so I don't get burnt out by the time I get to GoW 2018.  Story was mildly interesting, didn't seem to go into any of Kratos past, so I probably could've played through the prequel games before starting this one, so I'll probably do the prequel games after this one but before GoW3 even though one of them released after GoW3.  Story was slightly more interesting, graphics were WAY better than the first game for having been the same platform and only 2 years later.  Instant death mechanics are still annoying and frustrating.  So much of the game is so obvious that the 3rd game is going to be about the Titans betraying Kratos.  GoW1 had some stuff that implied that GoW2 would be about Kratos brother, but I guess that's one of the prequel games (Ghost of Sparta I think).
Rating: Soft recommendation.

60. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PS3)
Wow does this game look WAY better than the previous two games.  I don't know if it's because the PSP was better than the PS2 somehow or if they full on gave the game the HD treatment for its PS3 release, but it looks great.  I'm beating these games so quickly that I'm not really getting to write any notes on them.  GoW had you mashing R2 to open things, GoW2 had you mashing R1, and these Origins games have you mashing O.  Real inconsistent.
Rating: Soft Recommendation.

61. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PS3)
I'm having trouble keeping things in the right order, I think the GoW franchise is definitely a franchise that could use an alternative play order.  GoW -> Ascension -> CoO -> GoS -> GoW2 -> GoW3 -> GoW2018.  I haven't played Ascension yet, but I definitely feel like this is the proper play order... though I've heard many terrible things about Ascension... though it sounds like it's the same people who say don't play Resident Evil 6, which despite how you feel (I've still not played it yet) it's a mainline game.  I'm surprised I'm not sick of these games yet.  I'm not a huge fan of hack and slash, but I'm okay with brawler games which really aren't that different.  But I kinda like Greek mythology, so it stays interesting consistently.
Rating: Soft Recommendation.

62. God of War: Ascension (PS3)
Damn man, this game took 45 minutes to install.  It's my first instance of a PS3 game that required updates and such... took forever.  My copy had codes for the online pass and the DLC characters for Playstation All Star Battle Royale, codes still worked.  That's pretty dope.  I've always had an interest in the Furies, so even if this game is meh or sucks, I expect that alone to keep me going... shit I half expect to really like this game... just depends how much they rely on co-op and online stuff.  I expected to really like this one because of the Furies, and while I did enjoy the story and the Furies... I have a lot of complaints that make this definitely my least favorite GoW game, doubt it will be beat.  The QTE sequences seem shorter, but they aren't exactly colorblind friendly, half the time I don't even see the QTE prompts show up on the screen, so I have to basically just hope I see it.  The puzzles felt less intuitive and more frustrating than normal.
Rating: Soft Recommendation, maybe soft pass.

Next List
« Last Edit: September 16, 2019, 09:56:45 am by ignition365 »


Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #63 on: February 21, 2019, 12:03:19 am »
7 - Metro Exodus (PC 2019) - BEAT - - I've been a fan of this series and the sorta precursor series "STALKER" for quite a long time.  Games built around atmosphere, tension, and rather bleak circumstances in a Russian environment.  STALKER had good survival elements, while Metro took what that did and crafted better visuals, story, and gameplay around it all, even though it changed to a more linear experience.  Metro Exodus feels very much like more of a return to what STALKER was doing, offering big open world areas to explore though still in a linear sense, being that you can't go back to any previous area.

I feel like it mostly works, but there's a lot of sloppiness going on.  The game crashed on me twice, dialogue is constantly overlapping each other along with audio bugs, and there's been all sorts of little glitches and other annoyances going on.  It's generally stable, but the dialogue stuff is particularly egregious as it looks purposeful and I don't know why.  As for the good, I love the change to being able to craft on the fly.  It's done in a way that feels involved, I love being able to change parts on my weapons when I want, and it works well with the survival setting.  Feels better than kind of the more generic crafting experience that something like Far Cry offers.  They definitely did a reasonable job making Metro more of a sandbox experience without just feeling like a Far Cry knockoff, something I bring up again as the bigger settings bring it more into that series territory, even if they do have noticeable differences between them.

That said, I feel like I mostly preferred Last Light more.  New good additions and a change of scenery aside, I think the slightly smaller scale works better in their favor, because it allows them to craft a more engaging experience.  It's a good game, especially if you are already a fan, but I think some of the games voice acting and kinda sloppy story stuff could rub people wrong, or if they were expecting a more action heavy experience.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #64 on: February 25, 2019, 12:45:46 pm »
I'm trying to crush some of my backlog. It's getting pretty bad. So I've decided to take on this challenge as well. It's quite interesting for me cause I tend to always have a few multiplayer endeavors at any time.

Games beaten in 2019 thus far:

Nightshade (PC)
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Switch)

Playing:
TWEWY Final Mix
KH3
Yakuza Kiwami
NMH 2
Catherine Classic
Little Busters
Some other VNs
Some other games
I'm pretty all over the place. That's why I'm doing this.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #65 on: February 27, 2019, 12:30:12 am »
slow month but

11. Castlevania Circle of the Moon (GBA) 2/26 - Beat


Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #66 on: March 02, 2019, 07:43:17 am »
Dishonored 2 is solid.  The narrative is pretty underwhelming compared to the first game.  I think it might actually be a little bit easier than the first as well.  It makes up for this in level design.  The Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab are two of the most interesting levels I’ve played in a long time.  The penultimate chapter is pretty good as well, but lacks a true plethora of options like the first game offered.  The last one was pretty disappointing, as it was pretty simple and straightforward.

Overall pretty good, but I can see why it underperformed.


telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #67 on: March 02, 2019, 07:44:20 pm »
Game 3 - Undertale (PS4) - 17 hours

~~SPOILERS!!~~ Definitely play the game before reading.

First, let me say how I played the game first. I went into it with almost no knowledge of the game. I played through it once and got the neutral ending with a LV of 7, then reset the game and played it through a second time getting the perfect ending. I didn't look up anything about the game until I beat the game a second time, where I looked up some of the other endings and the general mechanics of the game.

This game is really hard to review because it has such a reputation surrounding it. In a way, I'm glad I played it four years after it came out since the hype has died down just a little. Anyway, I can definitely see why this game is so popular, and I do think it's very, very good. But I do think there are some things that could have been better.

+ I know there's a lot of opinions on what the "message" of this game is, but for me, the game is a really interesting deconstruction of what an RPG or even a game is. Obviously the goal is to not fight anyone, which seems totally counter-intuitive on it's own, but even boss fights, equipment and stats, and the scenarios the game throws at your are all presented as either a joke or in a "turned on its head" kind of way. Speaking of jokes, the game is very funny and charming with some great characters and hilarious dialogue. I also really loved the battle system of dodging projectiles and the game throws some cool curveballs at you too. The music is some of the best I've ever heard in gaming, probably one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. The game has a ton of replay value too, and I had a ton of fun playing the game a second time and picking up on stuff I missed on, and exploring stuff like the hidden lab.


- I think while the overall themes the game presents are good, the story presentation could be better. It's basic premise is kind of cliche and boring and there really isn't a lot of pizzazz to it. The game gives almost all of the exposition in a text dump in the final hallway of the game, which feels sloppy. I also don't know if the puzzles were meant to be kind of shitty or not, but most of them are really boring and straightforward. There are some good ones though.

Back to my list
« Last Edit: June 30, 2019, 05:01:56 pm by telly »
Currently Playing:
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PS4), Resident Evil 5 (PS4)

My music collection | My Backloggery

wolfen

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #68 on: March 02, 2019, 11:10:06 pm »
3. Shadow of the Colossus HD NG+(PS4)

I just played through again on NG+ trying to pick up some extra trophies I missed the first time. It was alot more fun this time because I used the items you unlock through Time Attack and I was more able to orient myself this time.

I really want to try The Last Guardian and Ico now.

Time: 11h43min
« Last Edit: March 02, 2019, 11:11:41 pm by wolfen »



Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #69 on: March 03, 2019, 02:40:35 am »
This is probably going to be my longest review as part of the 52 Games Challenge I've written yet so I am going to post it separately from my usual list of games which is currently on page 4 of this thread. I just beat Panzer Dragoon Saga tonight and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it, some positive, some negative. But here is my review of the game.


15. Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn): One of my biggest, if not my biggest reason for returning to US Saturn collecting was to someday own Panzer Dragoon Saga in order to play this game which is often considered not just one of the best Sega Saturn games of all time, but one of the best video games of all time. Such a bold proclamation combined with me reading many personal testimonies that corroborated these claims, combined also with seeing some pretty impressive footage of the game was all I needed to take the plunge and own this piece of video game history. It took some personal reassuring and coaxing, but I purchased a complete, near mint copy a few weeks ago for just shy of $600, and I immediately started playing it too see what all the fuss was about. A little over a week and 16-hours of gameplay later I beat the legendary Panzer Dragoon Saga, and am left feeling conflicted more so than exhilarated, as I was hoping to be after finishing it.


Panzer Dragoon Saga is not a pretty game, not just by today's standards either, but even for the time it was released its very muddy, blocky, and pixelated textures really undermine the game's visual fidelity, particularly during gameplay and during the in-game cutscenes. This is far less distracting when riding your dragon either in combat or around an area, but it becomes painfully obvious when you are on foot as the game's main character, Edge. Whether it is a cutscene where he exchanges dialogue with another of the game's NPCs or just wandering around the town Zoah, or any of the other locals, the buildings, tents, structures and NPCs all look pretty bad, and I can't imagine that many people in the late 90s thought differently when comparing it graphically to many other games of the time. There is a bit of a silver lining to the muddy and often subdued colors and textures of the game, as they do add to the game's dismal and hopeless atmosphere. Panzer Dragoon Saga goes to great lengths to immerse you in a world where humans are few and they are continually on the edge of extinction as a result of the bio-engineered monsters that have infested the world. More on the game's story and plot soon. But the game's visuals certainly lend themselves well to the overall feel and vibe of the game. One other area of praise I will give to this game is the details given to your dragon, especially the ability to morph your dragon's appearance depending on how you change its stats, which is done on an impressively minute scale; simply moving the stats marker slightly towards defense will change your dragons physical appearance differently than placing it even further into the defensive stats, and even more differently when placing the stats marker in the opposite direction towards agility stats. Combine this with your dragon leveling up its appearance at various times during the game and you have nearly unlimited customization of your dragons appearance which are fully realized during gameplay. In addition to this, many of the bosses are large and visually impressive as well, however the overall enemy variety in the game is a bit lacking, especially when compared to many other JRPGs released around the same time.


The game's soundtrack and voice acting are perhaps one of if not its greatest asset. The soundtrack is incredible, with nearly each piece of music feeling memorable and impactful; it really drives home the importance of what is going on at that moment in the game, or amplifying the feel of a particular location you happen to be visiting. Panzer Dragoon Saga's voice acting, which is a mix of Japanese and a fictional language made up for the game are done well, and many characters, even non-important NPCs are fully voice acted. Many characters will often say something different after you just finished talking to them as well, which is excellent attention to detail.


Gameplay is fairly simplistic despite having the appearance of being a lot more deep and complex. What I mean by this is the game's core gameplay which mostly takes place during battles revolves around positioning yourself around the enemy or enemies you're fighting, finding the right place to be in order to defend yourself while also being able to inflict maximum damage on your opponent(s). This is a cool system, but often involves little more shifting continuously in order to optimize defense at times and attack during others. This is further complimented by needing to pay attention to three action gauges which fill throughout battle, with some of your more powerful/effective abilities requiring two or more gauges to use, meaning you always have to plan on when to use and when to save your gauges in battle. As mentioned, you can shift your dragon's stats around in order to provide you the most optimal stats depending on what you're up against. Despite how useful this sounds, I found this system to be somewhat unnecessary during most of the game. I mostly relied on a balanced build for my dragon to get through 90% of the game. Aside from that, the game has all the items and special abilities you'd expect from a JRPG released during this era. In regards to gameplay out of combat, it involves you either navigating areas with your dragon, allowing you to fly in all directions as well as up and down. You can also use your dragon's lasers to activate switches, break open item containers, and go through doors as well. Likewise, when on foot as Edge, you can navigate around the game's various towns and select various objects and items throughout the area you are in. These out of combat gameplay controls work and allow you to do what you need to get around. Unfortunately this is the entirety of the gameplay, and lacks a lot of the depth, detail, and diversity seen in many other JRPGs released before and after Panzer Dragoon Saga. The game is incredibly linear with very little deviation from where the story takes you, which certainly has the benefit of keeping the game focused and to the point, but takes away from the depth often found in other games of the genre. Finally, Panzer Dragoon Saga is a very short RPG, taking only 16-hours to beat, probably an hour or two less for someone who is replaying the game a second or third time. I found the game's linearity and shortness to be a positive as it helped with the game's pacing and kept the game focused throughout, but others who enjoy the typical, expansive, 60+ hour RPG experience might see this as a fault.


Then last and certainly not least is the game's story. Panzer Dragoon Saga is a sequel to the first two games on the Saturn, both rail shooter action games, but acts as a capstone to the stories of those two games while also giving context and additional info to both. But more so than that, Panzer Dragoon Saga's own story is excellent, well, at least the first 3/4 of it. Panzer Dragoon Saga starts out with your character Edge seeking revenge on the game's main antagonist Crayman and his henchmen for killing Edge's friends at an excavation site that they were guarding on behalf of the Empire. His motive of revenge is what drives the plot and story of the game, however when you finally catch up with Crayman the story takes a fairly unexpected twist that is both interesting and a little off putting as well, as it creates a new motivation for Edge that is not nearly as well established as his desire for revenge, nor does it completely make sense in the context of what transpired throughout the story or in regards to the greater story and plot of the Panzer Dragoon games. I know this sounds vague, but I am trying to not spoil anything here. In addition to this unwelcome shift in the story, the ending of this game really bothered me. It's essentially one of those "open to interpretation" endings which has some interesting implications, but for me it mostly felt like a copout on the developer's part because they didn't have the resources to complete the story how they originally envisioned. There are various other aspects of this game that seem to support this, including the aforementioned shift in the story and plot during the last quarter of the game. Unfortunately the ending somewhat diminished my overall experience with the story of Panzer Dragoon Saga, which was for the most part pretty good up until the end.


Overall, Panzer Dragoon Saga is a pretty good JRPG which some flaws, but overall it's definitely above average. However being above average is perhaps the game's biggest problem; games included in greatest games of all time lists are not just "pretty good" or "above average." Then there is the issue of the game's price. I know Panzer Dragoon Saga is a very rare game, from my research there were only 20,000 to 25,000 copies printed in North America, but that hardly justifies the game's $600+ price tag. The most I can reasonably see this game being worth factoring in these two things would be $250 to $300. However, there is one more factor that needs to be considered, the game's accessibility. It is commonly known to many Saturn and JRPG fans that the source code for Panzer Dragoon Saga was lost years ago during Sega's restructuring during the late 90s and early 2000s. What this essentially means is that Panzer Dragoon Saga will never be ported to another console or platform, remaining forever locked on the Sega Saturn as the only way to ever play it. It is possible that someday Sega or someone might come along and remake the game from the ground up, but to do so would rob the experience one feels when playing the original. With all that said, it makes more sense to justify its current price, although it is still a little too steep if you ask me. Panzer Dragoon Saga is certainly a great JRPG and undoubtedly one of the more unique examples from that genre, however one cannot help but wonder if the price of admission is a bit too steep, especially when there are many cheaper JRPGs out there that are superior to it, both that came before and after it.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 11:05:21 am by bikingjahuty »

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #70 on: March 06, 2019, 06:39:42 am »
Just Beat:

8. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4):
The biggest issue I have with this game is it's unwillingness to break away from it's objective structure. There are moments in which say a crisis suddenly appears within the city, but instead of it being an event that suddenly picks up moment, the main character observes this and notes how he will have to discuss this with the city's mayor/leader... and then it cuts to you waking up the next morning and having to talk to them before proceeding to deal with the crisis at hand! The whole game was like this, having nonsensical delays in where the pace should ramp up to 11! It honestly made it a slog to get through, this coming from someone who generally likes Yakuza games too- Which you could call this game a re-skin of them games.

I will say the one part I really did enjoy that felt unique was working in the Bar. I enjoyed the silliness put into making the drinks and getting involved with all the scenarios that would come from meeting people there. But beyond that it's really a lot of the stuff we've seen in Yakuza before - Casinos, Club Management etc. I did actually put effort into watching some of the series before playing to gather context for it, so I didn't just jump in without knowing much about FotNS but I really feel this title is a step back from Yakuza games and I'd really just recommend them instead.

7. The Simpsons Game (PS3)
I recently played through this with a friend, being a rarity of a Co-op game! At first it just seemed really janky and formulaic but there is a section in the later half of the game where you can see where budget went. The game features a lot of fourth-wall breaking and parodies but in the later game it literally parodies other games with levels based on Medal of Honor or one focusing on JRPGs! The creativity in the level design increased dramatically! and the scenarios were really engaging and the game went from just ok to pretty great!

6. Devil May Cry 3 HD (PS4)
I must admit I didn't have a fun time playing this, I was intending to play through the series in prep for 5 but just playing this put me off entirely. the difficulty is very unbalanced, I found once I was able to get Trickmaster to Level 2 I was able to dodge effectively and didn't struggle as much after that, but the opening segment was very frustrating! Also, the story has a lot less depth than I remember, I know it's primarily an action game, but I always thought this title had more historical context being the prequel, but I just found it rather flat. I know Dante is meant to be younger and more cocky, but sometimes I just found him too irritating and not a character I really liked being. I may get back into the DMC series and I am sure I will get 5 someday but for now the series interest is shelved.

Playing:
Final Fantasy V (PC)

Plan to play:
Ni No Kuni (PS3)
Vampyr (PS4)

Beat:
8. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4), 7. The Simpsons Game (PS3), 6. Devil May Cry 3 HD (PS4), 5. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4), 4. Resident Evil 2 REMAKE (PS4), 3. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (PS4) 2. Resident Evil REMAKE (PS4) 1. Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded (PS4)

wolfen

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #71 on: March 06, 2019, 05:00:49 pm »
I played through Shadow of Colossus NG+ Hard, but I'm not sure if I should add it as another game beaten. Each boss is actually different in Hard Mode with more vital points and more defense so there's that.



Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #72 on: March 06, 2019, 06:26:14 pm »
Adding a few more to the list:

12. Shovel Knight (Switch) 2/27 - Beat
13. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) 3/4 - Beat

Also if anyone is interested, I started an Instagram account to keep track of my progress as well, you can follow me @bravethebacklog

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #73 on: March 08, 2019, 10:00:54 am »
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was pretty meh.  The mechanics and gameplay are fine, but the Outsider stuff is what I care least about in this series, and building a whole (very short) campaign around it didn't really speak to me.  Maybe if they got a little more in depth with the story, but it feels way too light and breezy for what feels like the ultimate end of the franchise.


telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2019
« Reply #74 on: March 11, 2019, 10:41:18 am »
Game 4 – Stardew Valley (PS4) – 66 Hours

I counted this game as finished when I got to year three and got my evaluation from Grandpa.

+
Really enjoyed my time with this one, it’s one of those games that’s really hard to put down and the hours just kind of rack up without you noticing. I hadn’t played any farm-sim games before, though I’ve had some Harvest Moon games on my wishlist for years. The gameplay and freedom to do whatever you want are what really sell this game for me. Nothing is held back from you and there’s a wonderful sense of discovery combined the feeling of working up towards all those big goals and achievements. It’s interesting how a game that’s mostly doing same actions every day over and over again can be so engrossing, but it’s because there’s a lot of different things to do, like growing crops, raising animals, fighting monsters, mining for gems and minerals, or falling in love. The soundtrack is also wonderful, and the graphics are nice too.

-
I have one main complaint and a more nitpicky concern. I feel like the way your character moves in 2D space doesn’t really jive with the grid-based placement of plants and fencing. It can be really easy to accidentally destroy something or place a plant in the wrong space because you aren’t facing just right. Placing furniture in your house is ESPECIALLY irritating. To this day I still can’t figure out how to place something as simple as a picture frame! There are also some minor glitches, jittering, spelling errors, and other bugs that prevent the game from being as polished as it could be. It might be because I’m playing on console though.
 
On the topic of glitches, one of my favorites was when I bought a bus ticket to go to the desert, but my horse was in the way, so my character got stuck spinning around in circles for about 10 seconds on top of my horse, then magically teleported into the bus. I thought I softlocked the game xD

Back to my list
« Last Edit: November 02, 2019, 10:13:10 pm by telly »
Currently Playing:
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PS4), Resident Evil 5 (PS4)

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